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There’s an old saying that people often misattribute to Albert Einstein– that ‘the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.’ The saying has become a bit of a cliché, but there is actually some truth to it. About 80 years ago, a psychologist
For this week’s podcast I had the pleasure to speak with Viktorija once again, fresh off a long flight from Istanbul and several weeks in Europe. We had a really in-depth discussion that covers a lot of ground. We talked about Mexico City… and why it’s such a pleasant surprise: cheap, chic, clean,
Prince Harry ventured out of his nine-bedroom, $14.7 million oceanfront compound in California earlier this week to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The fact that Prince Harry is even addressing the UN General Assembly is absurd itself. But even more absurd were his weeping, whiny, wimpy remarks: “The right
It’s rare to find someone, anyone, who has yet to witness, hear about, or directly experience the devastating consequences of the supposed leadership that ‘experts’ have unleashed on us over the past few years. They have engineered and mishandle crisis after crisis after crisis… The world over, from California to Sri Lanka, people
As longtime readers know, I’ve been a tremendous fan of Lee’s since I was a small child. He was wise beyond his years and packed a great deal into his short life. I put one of his quotes up on our former office’s walls in Santiago. It reads: “To hell with circumstances; I
Happy Canada Day to our Canadian friends. And Monday, of course, is Independence Day in the United States. It’ll be an odd one for sure. Many cities are reportedly cutting back on their fireworks displays due to… yes… supply chain shortages. And many people may scale down their traditional backyard grilling due to
Today’s missive looks a bit different from our normal Friday roundup. As you probably know, a few big rulings came down from the United States Supreme Court over the past 24 hours– one on gun control, the other on abortion. Predictably, the rulings were accompanied by a great deal of noise and outrage.
In late 2019, a team executive for the NBA’s Houston Rockets Tweeted a very brief statement of support for pro-freedom protesters in Hong Kong. Hardly anyone should have noticed; he didn’t have much of a following, and it was an incredibly harmless comment. Yet that single Tweet caused a massive firestorm. The Chinese
It’s a simple question of arithmetic. Imagine you could go back in time to 1871 and ask one of your long lost ancestors to invest $2,500 for the benefit of future generations. That amount of money wasn’t insignificant… but certainly not a major fortune; it would be worth roughly $50,000 in today’s money.
In the early summer of 1514, Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon returned home to the court of King Ferdinand as a hero. De Leon was among the first of Spain’s conquistadors to discover gold– right here in Puerto Rico. And that was enough for him to be knighted and bestowed all sorts of
When Gideon Gono became the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in late 2003, his country was already suffering from terrible hyperinflation. Throughout the 1990s, inflation in Zimbabwe averaged well over 20%. And just a few years later inflation had reached 200%. That’s when Zimbabwe’s government hired Gideon Gono to fix the
It’s not generally in my nature to heap praise upon a place with a 53% tax rate, a 25% VAT, or one of the top ten highest tax burdens in the world. But as I often remark, nearly every place in the world has something great going for it… some unique competitive advantages
301 AD was a big year for the Roman Empire. That was the year that, amid spiraling inflation, Emperor Diocletian issued his Edict on Maximum Prices, essentially fixing prices of just about everything across the Roman Empire. The price of wheat, a day labor’s wages, a quart of olive oil, transportation rates– everything
While traveling across Europe recently, Sovereign Man’s CEO (Viktorija) became quite ill and needed some urgent medical treatment. First, she’s doing fine, and we’re grateful for that. Second, it’s not COVID. I know that in the collective mind of most of the world, and for especially public health experts, no other disease exists
Think back to where you were two years ago today. For me, I was in Trakai, Lithuania. It was Day 4 of our 10th annual Sovereign Academy entrepreneurship camp. My dear friends Bill and Marco were giving a joint lecture to the students on hiring, firing, and building culture within a business. Craig
By the summer of 1849, Karl Marx was still an obscure writer struggling to make an impact. He had published The Communist Manifesto— a short, 23-page pamphlet– the previous year in 1848. But as yet it had failed to catch on. Marx was operating a fledgling newspaper in Germany at the time. But
Nearly every year in his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters, Warren Buffett spends a few pages talking about the dynamism of the American economy. His message is clear: the United States has faced adversity before. It will again. But America always prevails and you should never bet against it. That theme has certainly
The most astute investors in the world understand that there is no such thing as a risk-free investment. Every investment carries at least some risk; stocks, bonds, venture capital, real estate… even something as simple as keeping money in a bank.… they all carry some degree of risk. Sharp investors take steps to
In late 2019, the real estate firm Knight Frank published a list of the most expensive streets in the world, i.e. the individual neighborhoods with outrageously pricey real estate. The top 10 list included four streets in New York City (57th Street, Central Park South, Fifth Avenue, and Park Avenue), three in Hong
One of the wonderful people I’ve been fortunate to get to know in my life is legendary investor and prolific author Jim Rogers. I’ve known Jim for nearly 10 years now. He’s a great guy and I’ve learned so much from him– about finance, markets, travel, writing. But above all that, one thing
It feels like it’s easily been two years since I’ve recorded a public podcast. But after yesterday’s article about inflation, I realized that I had so much more to say. Inflation– which is essentially the slow destruction of a currency– is already a major issue that’s capturing headlines. But there are plenty of
This morning I reached out to my old friend and colleague Peter Schiff to talk about some uncomfortable truths that very few people are discussing right now. I wrote to you about this yesterday: banks are in trouble. You can’t expect to shut down practically an entire world economy that is in debt
I thought in this age of insanity that we are living in, nothing would surprise me anymore. But sure enough, there was a headline in the Financial Times the other day, “Central banks should consider giving people money.” It seems almost impossible that someone could believe in something so ridiculous. And yet this
Each year, I invite an incredible mix of young people from more than a dozen countries to join me in Lithuania for an intense week of business, investing and entrepreneurship classes taught by the smartest people I know (it’s also entirely free for the students who attend. I pay out of my own
Last week in its annual report, the US government reported that Social Security’s long-term, unfunded liability now exceeds $50 TRILLION. Moreover, they state that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds will run out of money in 2034. This is the government’s own calculation. Bottom line: The younger you are, the less you
Today’s podcast is with Marin Katusa. Marin is a world-class resource investor and lead analyst for Katusa Research – his publishing company, where he shares the details of many of the private investments he makes. Marin’s been investing in resource stocks for twenty years. And he’s gained a reputation as a guy who
Today’s episode of the Sovereign Man Podcast features non other than Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, Tim Staermose, talking about not one but two highly successful, targeted investment strategies with proven track records. If you are a regular SMC or 4th Pillar reader, then you’re familiar with Tim’s wit, his financial probity, and
Today we bring you a fresh episode of the Sovereign Man Podcast, where Simon Black unpacks why the people in charge have no idea what they’re talking about… and how you can protect yourself from their policies. Freshman politicians want to nationalize entire industries. They want to increase the marginal tax rate to
Welcome to another edition of the Sovereign Man podcast. As we enter 2019, you’ll start to see more podcasts from us. And you also might notice a few changes. We’ve upped the production value of our chats with Simon. And we’ll continue to improve both the production and the content of our podcasts.
Between the year 1054 and 1224, there were 83 civil wars in Russia. That’s about one civil war every two years. Through the middle ages, feudal lords were periodically murdered in peasant revolts. When people sense too much unfairness in the system, the pitchforks come out. Wealth and inequality have been with us
Last week I recorded the most memorable podcast I’ve hosted in some time. Jim Grant, editor of the famed Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, joined us for a discussion. Grant’s, in my opinion, is one of the finest financial publications out there. And it’s a treat to have a guy like Jim on the
It’s been a hell of a week here in the Italian countryside. I’ve been treating my team and some friends to a sort of mini-vacation at a 400-year old wine and olive estate that we’ve taken over. The views, the food, the wine, the company… it’s all incredible. Each night about two dozen
In today’s podcast, I share the details of a deal a well-known private bank just offered me (and its roster of other high-net worth clients). It’s a bad deal in every way… the asset in question is valued insanely high, there’s likely a ton of debt attached to this deal and I doubt
Last week, Paolo Savona, an Italian man no one outside the country had ever heard of, was denied the position of finance minister. Italy’s President denied his appointment because Savona is anti-euro. The President believes Italy should remain part of the euro. I wrote a Notes about the entire situation last week. But
In today’s podcast, I share more thoughts on Puerto Rico including my experiences opening a business there. While the island has its problems, I’m still bullish on the long-term future given Puerto Rico’s incredible tax incentives (especially after meeting with their government leader and seeing how open they are to productive people moving